All the world’s a stage

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

3/2/05, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:33 PM CET

The end of February means, for many 20-somethings in Brussels, the end of their five-month stage.

he mystery of what goes on during a stage has been punctured by a group of stagiaires who spent their stage making a film about doing a stage…Perhaps even now there are stagiaires planning to make a film about stagiaires making a film about doing a stage. As that man Shakespeare wrote: “All the world’s a stage/And all the men and women merely players.”

The film had its premiere last week. It will be shown to fresh, unsuspecting stagiaires next week but has already gone straight to DVD after one showing. Somehow the film-makers amassed sponsorship from the likes of Microsoft, ExxonMobil and Norsk Hydro. They considered the budget of €11,500 to be too low, thereby showing that they had acquired some skills that would be useful for a career in the Commission.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …